Depth of cultural immersion, not mere exposure, drives how much benefit accrues

Evidence

If profound cultural experiences produce deep psychological changes even at the neurological level, such fundamental structural change in the brain could then have general and wide-ranging benefits. Indeed, our findings on the impact of multicultural experiences on professional performance suggest that other issues like the improved ability to navigate interpersonal relationships, manage group conflicts, make judicious decisions in terms of long-term organizational planning and strategy, and other mental and social processes could result from transformational cross-cultural experiences that produce more integratively complex individuals. Thus, it may not be such a gigantic leap from solving candle problems or word association tasks in the laboratory—what some researchers have referred to as “little c” creativity—to producing great works of literature or starting successful new companies, that is, the so-called “big C” creativity (see Maddux, Leung, Chiu, & Galinsky, 2009, for a discussion; Rich, 2009). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2270

Categorization

• QUESTION: What exactly is the ‘integrative complexity’ mechanism linking cross-cultural experience to creativity — is it a cognitive flexibility gain, a perspective shift, or something else the chapter details elsewhere?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2270
• XREF: connects to: Exclusive access and insider cultural knowledge create prestige independent of money. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 216